[Marxism] MSNBC: Why Cuba's New Castro is loosening up (blog)

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(Now all they'll need is the money to buy the computers, and then Cuba
will need permission to buy high-speed internet access through the
fiber-optic cables already sitting their under the Caribbean and Cuba
will be able to join the 20th century in computer terms. Cuba already
buys its internet access from the US, but through the slower and more
costly satellite connection. Cuba already buys hundreds of millions of
dollars worth of agricultural commodities from the US, and already is
buying slower access via the satellite. What they really need now is
the kind of high-speed DSL access which most of us in the US take for
granted and no longer think about very much. I say this here in New
York where I'm working on someone's wireless router based on their
having such high-speed access via their phone lines.

(There's a blog at the MSNBC website which you can participate in, and
YOU SHOULD.)
======================================================================

MSNBC:
Why Cuba's new Castro is loosening up
Posted: Thursday, March 13, 2008 12:47 PM
Filed Under: Havana, Cuba
By Mary Murray, NBC News Producer

http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/03/13/766046.aspx 

On Thursday, Cuba authorized the unrestricted sale of computers, DVD
and video players and other appliances in a move that's being seen as
an effort by Cuba's new leader, Raul Castro, to appease some of the
grumbling by residents of the island.

Cuban consumers have complained for years that there is not much here
to buy.

The sale in government-run stores of most electrical appliances and
electronics have been carefully controlled for years - in many cases
restricting their sale to foreigners and Cuba's diplomatic community.

That hasn't meant, of course, that people didn't get their hands on
electronic goods. Almost anything here can be bought - mostly at
exorbitant prices - on Cuba's flourishing black market.

This move continues a trend Raul Castro began implementing nine
months ago, when he was still acting as Cuba's "temporary" leader for
his brother Fidel. He eased customs regulations in June 2007 that
permit imports of car parts, some electrical appliances and desktop
computers destined for family members on the island. Basically this
was an invitation to Miami and the rest of the Cuban diaspora to help
out relatives still on the island.

At the time the government said it was studying the repeal of
prohibitions on items such as microwaves and freezers.

People, though, continued to complain, demanding the right to buy
locally and at fair prices.

Thursday's measures list computers, video and DVD players, 19-inch
and 24-inch television sets, electric pressure cookers and rice
cookers, electric bicycles, car alarms and microwaves as items that
Cubans will now be allowed to buy.

While some people here will rejoice in the changes, you have to
remember that most working people earn the equivalent of about $25 a
month and can barely make ends meet. All retail is run by the
government and averages a 240 percent markup as legislated by Cuban
law.

========================================
WALTER LIPPMANN, CubaNews
Los Angeles, California
http://www.walterlippmann.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
"Cuba - Un Paraiso bajo el bloqueo"
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